Ammonia reading 8.0ppm, 0 nitrites, 160ppm nitrates

[irisg898]

Is this the same filter that was on the 65?

No, my 65 gal has a hang over the back filter. 2 separate tanks with 2 separate filters.

 

[irisg898]

I would ditch the use of that proper pH 7.0 for starters and see if you can purchase some cycled media (sponge filters preferably) from one of their displays (preferably the same ones you got the fish from). Stability > going through a roller coaster of adjustments for exact numbers in the sense of pH (within reason) for basically all captive bred freshwater fish in the hobby now days.

Typically a lot of freshwater lfs that utilize sponge filters would have very established bacteria thats used to weekly/bi monthly influxes of 50+ fish which can easily handle the bioload of a few angelfish to basically instant cycle your tank.

I would also definitely suggest a few water changes to lower that ammonia and nitrate though (strange how both are registering sky high vs just the ammonia but maybe thats because of the prime or source water?)

The angelfish I have I raised since they were eggs. Unfortunately, the parents died with the new fish aquarium.. My 65 gal tank is the one with the high ammonia and nitrates reading with 0 nitrites, meanwhile my 125 gal has 0 readings for everything. I will attempt to do the water changes on the 65 gal.

 

[C_AWOL]

The angelfish I have I raised since they were eggs. Unfortunately, the parents died with the new fish aquarium.. My 65 gal tank is the one with the high ammonia and nitrates reading with 0 nitrites, meanwhile my 125 gal has 0 readings for everything. I will attempt to do the water changes on the 65 gal.

Fortunately in the freshwater world, there isn't as terrible diseases to deal with (at least commonly) and general husbandry (from what ive seen) is a lot better than in a lot of the marine hobby so gambling on disease introduction via utilizing a seeded sponge filter/seeded media from a store would likely not be the end of the world in comparison to the extremely high ammonia and nitrates that you're dealing with now.

If disease introduction is a big concern, I would simply avoid any media from a system containing any live bearers, gouramis, goldfish family members, or wild plecostomus since those typically are the most commonly diseased fish in freshwater (from what i've seen). Best bet would typically be a tank that has any african cichlids or parrot cichlids

That or find a fellow freshwater hobbyist/friend who you can bum off some sort of established biomedia from. The more the better/and/or the more densely populated the tank the better.

Regardless, either solution would be much quicker/more of a sure thing imo+ime at fixing the problem than any bottled bacteria might.

 

[Spare time]

0 nitrite means that either the ammonia or nitrate test is off. I am betting its the ammonia in this case. This is why nitrite testing is very helpful

 

[C_AWOL]

0 nitrite means that either the ammonia or nitrate test is off. I am betting its the ammonia in this case. This is why nitrite testing is very helpful

65 gallon tank: 4.0 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, ph 7.4 and 80 ppm nitrate.
125 gallon tank: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, ph 7.4, and 160ppm nitrate.

You might be on to something considering the quoted parameters was what was mentioned previously as far as his 125g and vs a more recent post mentioning that the nitrates are apparently 0 in said 125g unless I'm just not able to read properly


The main reason why I didn't suspect that was because the 65g (?) was "fully cleaned" according to the parent and is the one registering ammonia (suspected due to source water?) and if the nitrates were already previously high or if the source water is naturally high in nitrate (which i've seen before) then his results are certainly plausible as far as the 0 nitrite reading.